Dwayne Phillips ' Day Book

Items I happen to view each day. Science, Techonology, Management, Culture, and of course Writing

This is my day book for this week. I have modeled this after science fiction and computer writer Jerry Pournelle's view, or as he calls it, his Day Book. I encourage you to see Jerry Pournelle's site and subscribe to his services.

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This week: December 22-28, 2014

Summary of this week:

Monday - Tuesday - Wednesday - Thursday - Friday - Saturday - Sunday

Monday December 22, 2014

Google+ adds more video processing capabilities. Back up your video there and take advantage.

Google extends the Android One inexpensive smartphone to Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka.

This person uses Skype Translator and is quite impressed.

ooops, 12million homes are using routers that are vulnerable to easy hacking.

Everyone is excited about NASA emailing data to the ISS where they 3D printed a wrench. Great, until you remember that NASA cannot put a person in space. We hitch rides with the Russians.

Yet another study shows that traffic light cameras increase accidents, but bring in money. And money is all that matters to politicians.

State of the practice in smartphones from Ars Technica.

State of the practice in high-end laptop computers from AnandTech.

Best Christmas music no one ever hears.

Something for Christmas—an extra-wide, curved monitor from Samsung.

We are already looking ahead to Apple's 2015 MacBook Air changes.

Texas Instruments makes advances in harvesting tiny but useful amounts of power.

Here we go again: Staples is hacked and a million credit cards are exposed.

A new term for me: Mompreneurs.

Who need a rearview mirror when you can have video cameras everywhere?

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Tuesday December 23, 2014

The Withings Activite: proof that smart watches don't have to look stupid.

Facebook's stock hits an all-time high.

The first Google car is ready for road testing. It looks like a VW bug. I like it.

After 20 years, Eastern Airlines is reborn.

Singer Joe Cocker dies at 70.

Amazon won't release its next Fire phone until 2016. We can make all sorts of puns about being burned by the fire etc.

HP has a touchscreen, 14" chromebook—$440. I think they have lost sight of the main point.

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Wednesday December 24, 2014

Google and Microsoft join the fight against motels that want to block private RF use. Many companies forbid the use of motel WiFi as it can lead to theft of data. They use their own WiFi hotspots for company use while on hotel grounds.

Here is a story about the motel group that wants to stop personal WiFi. They have a case as you are a guest in their building.

Samsung starts making 8GigaBit memory chips for mobile devices.

The Italian government wants TripAdvisor to ensure that all reviews are legitimate. Good luck with that one.

The government of South Korea indicts the CEO of Uber. Again, good luck with that.

The demand for the iPhone 6 continues to be astronomical.

After all, Sony will release "The Interview." And this brings credance to the theory that all the fuss about the movie was a stunt to gain publicity. The hack and its damage were real, but tossing in all the stuff about the movie—maybe not so real.

In terrible news for America, we may be seeing the beginning of a civil war between citizens who work for the government and citizens who don't.

A teen builds a low-cost braille printer using Legos.

And the end of western civilization is near (not), Keurig is recalling 7million coffee makers.

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Thursday December 25, 2014

Christmas morning. Not a lot of Internet viewing today.

Google created a list of the most-purchased gifts this year by city.

A recent study shows that body-worn cameras reduce violence by both police and those they encounter.

If you live in Minneapolis, you can get 10GigaBitPerSecond Internet service.

Further evidence that maybe or maybe not North Korea was involved in the Sony hack.

Facebook moves further into becoming the major video site in the world.

The NFL makes a deal with Facebook to show highlights of games.

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Friday December 26, 2014

Several video game networks went down on Christmas Day, and hackers claim credit.

It seems that everyone wants to buy vinyl LP records.

People in droves are watching "The Interview." No surprises, just a bro-comedy. Actually a remake of Chevy Chase's "Spies Like Us."

Coming soon, a smartphone from—of all people—Kodak.

The Christmas truce of 1914, and why man moved away from such gentlemanly conduct.

It appears that Congress will quickly raise the H-1B visa numbers. Can you spell unemployment?

MIT builds a language Ur/Web to simplify programming on the Internet.

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Saturday December 27, 2014

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Sunday December 28, 2014

Online shopping has become mobile shopping with iOS far ahead of Android.

Amazon added 10million Prime subscribers over the holiday season. That's a billion dollar$.

Facebook apologizes for the lousy job its Year in Review software has done.

"Tech" companies are moving into big cities to attract younger talent.

An argument in favor of bringing in more immigrant tech talent.

North Korea has had a couple of Internet outages, so everyone assumes that the US is behind them. There are so few people in PRK using the Internet that I don't know how anyone noticed the outage.

Kodak—yes, Kodak—will be selling Android gadgets next year.

It is possible to continue writing during holidays.

Thoughts on alcohol and writing. I strongly advise against such chemical dependencies. The idea that, "with a certain amount of chemical in the blood, you write better" is dead wrong.

Thoughts on begining to work in technical writing.

Writers need editors, or at least someone else to read the words.

Improving productivity each day.

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